Many of the standard reasons, really: better quality at similar filesizes, being open-source, and being patent-free. And being more likeable in some intangible way. Honestly, I wasn't even really aware of MPC's existence at the time. Do you ask for a reason other than curiosity?

Many of the standard reasons, really: better quality at similar filesizes, being open-source, and being patent-free. And being more likeable in some intangible way. Honestly, I wasn't even really aware of MPC's existence at the time. Do you ask for a reason other than curiosity?

Just to throw you a TOS#8 reminder for bold quality related statements!

Just joking... never mind!

I understand (and apreciate) your subjective considerations; as I said I think the "freedom factor" is important. I don't use Ogg/Vorbis, but I'm happy and somehow re-assured by its existence. I was asking just to be confirmed that this factor had an important weight in your (and probably most other's Ogg supporters) decision. I can't (and wouldn't) comment on quality. I'm sure it is good enough for most people/applications, wherever/whenever a lossless codec is enough.

Ogg as well, because it's made for small-capacity flash players! It maximizes minimal space the best if you don't require transparency (HE-AAC does well in this regard too, but hardware support is minimal itself)

I do think that in within 10 years, lossless will be the standard audio format. We'll have so much space and bandwidth that it simply won't matter.

IMO, space will always matter to me. I have an 80g Neuros, and already I'm at the limit and I'm not even close to finishing encoding my collection. Not to mention needing capacity for all the great music I'd like to discover in the future.

I'm using mp3, because although the Neuros supports vorbis, there are a couple things that keep me away from it:

1) reported buggy support on the Neuros at Q6 and higher2) increased processer demand = lower battery life3) issues (HF boost, reported acoustic/classical sources sounding artificial) seems less attractive than potential artifacts with LAME -aps IMO4) based on the threads I read, having a standard setting for transparency seems less clear for vorbis than with mp3. Leading to increased confusion re compiles, switches.

And so far, the non-open status of mp3 has not hindered my listening pleasure at all. The Neuros is trying to adopt MPC support, and if/when that happens I'll probably switch to MPC at that point, but not reencode my previous rips because they're good enough.

I only use Wavpack for rips I've made from rare vinyl-only releases that really need to be preserved.

Space will always matter as long as obsessiveness exists. Why settle with a month of continuous music if you can have a year? Who knows when you will get stranded on a desert island and not be able to get to your computer to load the music you'll want to hear for the next month? (Nevermind the need for recharghing the battery)

When I first came to HA I exclusively used Ogg Vorbis at -q3. After experimenting with Musepack and AAC for a while I borrowed my sisters mp3 player for a hospital appointment, then I reripped my music colection to mp3 when I bought my own afterwards (originally I transcoded my collection, I didn't have time to get my cds out before going to hospital).

I now use MP3 aps for most of my music. I still have a couple of rare cds encoded in Vorbis because I lost them when I moved house , I use FLAC with my other rare cds so I don't make that mistake again.

Add another vote for mp3 from me. I've tried a few other formats and must admit that I really liked Ogg Vorbis, but in the end mp3 is the only format that's compatible with everything that I want to play it on.

Also I found that in order to get encodes that are transparent (for me and my equipment) I needed mp3's that are larger by only about 10% as compared with the best of the other formats I tested. So I switched back to mp3 for better compatibility, and the slightly higher bit rate I need to get the quality level that's suitable for me is really not an issue.

BTW, I'm really glad that Lame is still being developed and tuned. I'm currently encoding with 3.96.1 -V4 and have no problems with the quality at about 165 kbps, though I also have most of my stuff archived in lossless format as well.

Primarily i use mareo to create flac -6 which i burn to dvdr and lame 3.96.1 --alt-preset standard which i store on my pc and copy onto my ihp-140, i also have some oggs and mpc's encoded but mpc has no h/w support yet (maybe rockbox soon) and oggs drain my battery more than mp3 at similar quality.

I second DreamTactix291 on this one. Vorbis because of the H120... Otherwise I'll probably do some serious ABXing of AAC and MPC once Rockbox is useable and supports them both - though I don't think FAAC/FAAD can beat MPC, but we shall see.

Quality is far beyond my listening abilitites at any bitrate > 128 kbps. Its hardware and software support are unchallenged. mp3 is, I think, the only lossy format I'll ever use : I've already switched to lossless for most music on my pc, and mp3 is good enough for portable players.

Basically I'll use what I feel like that day. My setup and hearing is not that great I'm able to really distinguish LAME MP3 from Vorbis, AAC, etc. and its not like my computer blows up when I mix Vorbises (whats the plural of that anyway?) with MP3s in one folder....

Codec. That's a hard choice... Because I'm still experimenting with different formats. But I vote for MPC, as it is the format I use for keeping my all CD's on HD since year 2000...At these days it was the only transparent format with such bitrate/quality ratio for me.

Now I am also encoding to OGG, for portable player usage. About a year ago nothing at 128k could beat OGG for me, and now Lame came pretty close, but still I'm kinda allergic to MP3's preecho and flanging watery sounds (OGG's artifacts sound different).

I started out with Fhg MP3, then WMA, then OGG, then to LAME MP3. (For maximum compatibility)

I'd like to use OGG more, but Vorbis development has been lacking. I'd like to use AAC, but lack of VBR in iTunes AAC turns me off. (I know Nero AAC has VBR support, but iTunes did slightly better in the last test). So it's LAME 3.96.1 for me!